When some people think of sleep disorders, they automatically think of insomnia.
While insomnia itself is considered a sleep disorder, it rarely stands alone and often has an underlying cause.
It is important to treat the underlying cause, which will result in more and better quality sleep.
These are some sleep disorders that may be causing your restless sleep, or lack of sleep.
Sleep Apnea Sleep apnea is one of the sleep disorders that do not actually prevent sleep, it just disrupts it.
Often, people are not even aware that they have it.
This is ironic, because it is a serious sleep disorder that can become dangerous if it goes untreated.
During the night, a sufferer of sleep apnea will actually stop breathing for a short period of time.
When the body realizes this, it will wake the person up, causing them to gasp for air.
This can occur over one hundred times during the night, leading to daytime fatigue.
Many who have this attribute their fatigue to overwork or stress, when it is really because their sleep cycle is constantly interrupted without their knowledge.
Often, sleep apnea isn't diagnosed until a person acquires a bed partner, such as a husband or wife.
The bed partner may comment on excessive snoring, snorting and gasping during the night.
It is important to see your doctor if you think you may have this because again, it can become dangerous.
Circadian Rhythm Disorder Your body's sleep patterns work on a biological clock running on sunlight and lack thereof.
For normal people, they get up in the morning and their melatonin production decreases causing them to wake up, and the opposite happens at night, making them feel sleepy.
For people with circadian rhythm disorder, this clock is off.
There are three different types of this disorder.
The first is like having your biological clock run too fast.
You wake up very early in the morning, often before the sun even comes up, and start to get sleepy around dinner time.
The opposite type is when your biological clock runs slow.
If you are one of these people, your peak of wakefulness may occur around midnight, and you won't get sleepy till very late at night.
You may also find yourself wanting to sleep late into the afternoon.
The third circadian sleep disorder is interestingly the natural clock our body runs on, the 25-hour clock.
Scientists have found this by putting people indoors with no time cues for a long period of time.
Over time, their bodies naturally adjust to a 25-hour day rather than a 24 hour one.
This can create problems in daily life however, because it rotates your period of wakefulness by one hour each day.